October 1, 2011

Seven soups every Saturday: coconut milk soup recipes

For the longest time, whenever someone mentioned coconut milk and soup in the same sentence, my mind jumped right to Tom Kha Gai, the ubiquitous Thai chicken coconut soup that's on every restaurant menu. How narrow my field of vision! Coconut milk enriches root vegetable soups, and provides a smooth base for most any protein (fish, chicken, tofu). For those who eat dairy-free or gluten-free, coconut milk offers a creamy alternative to milk or cream. It's inexpensive, easy to find in any grocery store, and will keep, unopened, for years in the pantry.

I love coconut milk! I just made Mark Bittman's "Noodles with Spicy Vegetable Stir-fry," which uses veggies in coconut milk, peanut butter, hot chili, soy sauce, and cilantro, with a sauteed shredded-carrot and onion base. It was delicious.

I notice that the Coconut Carrot Soup recipe calls for coconut oil. I've never used it - how is it to work with? Thanks, Lydia!

Judy, that sounds like a delicious noodle dish. I have a jar of coconut-peanut-chile sauce in my fridge right now, left over from a recipe I made for The Perfect Pantry. I've been thinking of turning it into a soup.

I use coconut milk all the time in general and do love it in soup. I love seeing it as the "theme" ingredient here, Lydia. Coconut milk can be magical in its abilities to replace dairy, cool a spicy soup, etc. All of these soups sound fantastic! I'm sure to be making one soon. :-)

Thanks,
Shirley

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